Africa SEEING and BEING SEEN: POLITICS, ART and THE

ٷۗ۝ۦۚۆ ېٯۆҖۛۦғۣۙۛۘ۝ۦۖۡٷғۗۧ۠ٷۢۦ۩ҖҖ۞ۣۃۤۨۨۜ ằẽẴẮẬڷۦۣۚڷۧۙۗ۝۪ۦۙۧڷ۠ٷۣۢ۝ۨ۝ۘۘۆ ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۝Ө۠ڷۃۧۨۦۙ۠ٷڷ۠۝ٷۡٮ ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۝Ө۠ڷۃۣۧۢ۝ۨۤ۝ۦۗۧۖ۩ۑ ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۝Ө۠ڷۃۧۨۢ۝ۦۤۙۦڷ۠ٷ۝ۗۦӨۣۡۡۙ ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۝Ө۠ڷۃڷۙۧ۩ڷۣۚڷۧۡۦۙے ІөۆڷےېۆڷۃۑӨٲےٲۋۍێڷۃІٮٮۑڷІٰٲٮψڷІөۆڷІٰٲٮٮۑ ІۆψېۓөڷۑھۆٱۑөۆψڷېۆیۍڷІٲڷﯦۆөﯦېٮ۔ٮڷٮٱے ۧڼہۂڽڬۧڼڿۂڽڷۃﯦٱێۆېٰۍےۍٱێ ۧۙۺٷٱڷٷ۝ۗ۝ۦۨٷێ ڿڿҢڷҒڷۀۀҢڷۤۤڷۃڽڽڼھڷۦІۣ۪ۙۡۖۙڷҖڷۀڼڷۙ۩ۧۧٲڷҖڷڽہڷۙۡ۩ۣ۠۔ڷҖڷٷۗ۝ۦۚۆ ڽڽڼھڷۦۣۙۖۨۗۍڷڿڽڷۃۙۢ۝ۣ۠ۢڷۘۙۜۧ۝۠ۖ۩ێڷۃڿۂҢڼڼڼڽڽڼھۀۂڽڼڼڼۑҖۀڽڼڽғڼڽڷۃٲۍө ڿۂҢڼڼڼڽڽڼھۀۂڽڼڼڼۑٵۨۗٷۦۨۧۖٷҖۛۦғۣۙۛۘ۝ۦۖۡٷғۗۧ۠ٷۢۦ۩ҖҖ۞ۣۃۤۨۨۜڷۃۙ۠ۗ۝ۨۦٷڷۧ۝ۜۨڷۣۨڷ۟ۢ۝ۋ ۃۙ۠ۗ۝ۨۦٷڷۧ۝ۜۨڷۙۨ۝ۗڷۣۨڷۣ۫ٱ ٮٱےڷІөۆڷےېۆڷۃۑӨٲےٲۋۍێڷۃІٮٮۑڷІٰٲٮψڷІөۆڷІٰٲٮٮۑڷғۀڽڽڼھڿڷۧۙۺٷٱڷٷ۝ۗ۝ۦۨٷێ ۃٷۗ۝ۦۚۆڷғۧڼہۂڽڬۧڼڿۂڽڷۃﯦٱێۆېٰۍےۍٱێڷІۆψېۓөڷۑھۆٱۑөۆψڷېۆیۍڷІٲڷﯦۆөﯦېٮ۔ٮ ڿۂҢڼڼڼڽڽڼھۀۂڽڼڼڼۑҖۀڽڼڽғڼڽۃ۝ۣۘڷڿڿҒҢۀۀҢڷۤۤڷۃڽہ ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۝Ө۠ڷۃڷۣۧۢ۝ۧۧ۝ۡۦۙێڷۨۧۙ۩ۥۙې ҢڽڼھڷۦٷیڷۀھڷۣۢڷۀڿھҢғڿھғڽڽғڿۂڽڷۃۧۧۙۦۘۘٷڷێٲڷۃېٯۆҖۛۦғۣۙۛۘ۝ۦۖۡٷғۗۧ۠ٷۢۦ۩ҖҖ۞ۣۃۤۨۨۜڷۣۡۦۚڷۘۙۘٷөۣۣ۫ۢ۠ Africa 81 (4) 2011: 544–66 doi:10.1017/S0001972011000593 SEEING AND BEING SEEN: POLITICS, ART AND THE EVERYDAY IN OMAR BADSHA’S DURBAN PHOTOGRAPHY, 1960s–1980s Patricia Hayes THE FRAMEWORKS OF DEBATE During the 1980s when the political struggle against apartheid in South Africa was intensifying on various fronts, a photographic image began to circulate that was unusual in the growing iconography of the left (see Figure 1). It joined other social documentary and more overtly political images in press packs and other formats that entered local venues and solidarity networks abroad to muster support for the struggle. Originally taken as part of Omar Badsha’s own ‘visual diary’ in Durban in 1980, the rathi player is framed against the backdrop of the Grey Street mosque in Durban. Given the circuits that this photograph entered, and the importance assumed by the visual image in 1980s South Africa, it is possible to argue that Badsha was inserting a different universalism into a body of pictures that tended to be underwritten by the universalism of Christian martyrdom. South Africa’s most famous image, for example, is Sam Nzima’s photograph of Hector Peterson’s slain body, taken at the beginning of the Soweto student uprising in 1976 and often likened to the Pièta. At least two other photographs from the 1980s have been captioned ‘the crucifixion’. But here Badsha makes reference to another martyrdom. Martyrdom is important in that as a young boy growing up in a Muslim Vhora home, we were brought up on stories – like young Christian kids – from the Bible. The martyrdom of [Hussein] had a profound influence on me when I was growing up, the rituals all took place around me in my district. Badsha comments that it was only in retrospect that he began to understand the symbolism. But what caught my attention as a child was the rituals, the excitement, mystery and most important of all the faith, sacrifice and martyrdom. In my adult life I began to explore the rituals and began understanding the significance of these PATRICIA HAYES is Professor of History at the University of the Western Cape. She has published and edited work on Namibian history, on photography and on gender. A long-term research project has been on documentary photography in Southern Africa, and she recently co- authored Bush of Ghosts: life and war in Namibia, 1986–90 with photographer John Liebenberg (Cape Town: Umuzi, 2010). She is also the joint convener of two international research groups dedicated to new, critical and creative histories of national liberation, under the rubrics of ‘War and the Everyday’ and ‘Love and Revolution’. Email: [email protected] © International African Institute 2011 http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 27 Mar 2015 IP address: 196.11.235.237 POLITICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN SOUTH AFRICA 545 FIGURE 1 Rathi players, Badsha Pir celebrations, Grey Street, Durban 1980 people – indenture[d workers] and the transferring of traditions and rituals and use of public space in the creation of identities.1 There seems to be a parallel between the photographer’s partially acknowl- edged childhood impressions, for which he only finds a language later, and the process of opening up the iconography of a political struggle to more complicated readings. South African photography of this decade was deeply informed by social documentary visual traditions, as well as anti-racism, African nationalism, secular labour struggles and, sometimes overtly, Christianity. Given the strength of certain images and discourses with the anti-apartheid networks internationally, many would argue that the struggle against apartheid came to represent a new universalism of its own. But while this photograph might challenge the taken-for- granted embeddedness of Christian iconography, for many viewers it remained (and remains) opaque and illegible on many levels. There is a tension between its richness of meaning at a localized level and its wider potential to be read. This essay addresses the genealogies in which a particular body of photographs are embedded, in both their content and form. It asks how they emerge, and what are their inter-textualities (or inter-visualities) at a period in South Africa when a variety of political struggles were gaining momentum. More generally, how do words (and life) inspire images and vice versa? The question issues an invitation to break down distinctions of medium and discipline that normally govern such matters. 1Omar Badsha, email communication with Patricia Hayes, 27 May 2006. http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 27 Mar 2015 IP address: 196.11.235.237 546 POLITICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN SOUTH AFRICA The point of departure is the Indian Ocean city port of Durban, and the interplays created between emerging political forces, social histories and the arts in the city from the 1960s onwards. The notion of ‘interplay’ comes from the photographer introduced above, Omar Badsha.2 It starts with the everyday under apartheid, where ‘[e]veryday life is synonymous with the habitual, the ordinary, the mundane, yet it is also strangely elusive’ (Felski 2000: 16). It was Badsha’s sense of this elusiveness that triggered his mode of the visual diary, in a broader quest to push the social margins into the political centre and to shift dominant perception. Badsha was one of the main architects of the Afrapix photographic collective set up in 1982, which created a framework in which many photographers of the 1980s came to operate and to reflect on their practice during large-scale political mobilization against apartheid. His personal trajectory was, however, much longer, coming as he did from a background as an artist, then trade unionist, with biographical roots in a highly particular South African ghetto in what is today KwaZulu-Natal. In fact, Badsha’s recollections about Durban between the 1960s and 1980s circle constantly around two things: politics and form. As he puts it, ‘Our interest was art; our interest was making revolution’ (Interview 2 with Omar Badsha). What has intrigued several contemporaries is the perceived transcendent quality of Badsha’s photographs, even as he pushed himself and other photographers to document the political struggle in very straight documentary terms. This is regarded as an anomaly (Hayes 2007; Roberts 1998:2–5). In this regard, the renowned South African photographer David Goldblatt argues that Badsha’s photography ‘has an amazing degree of complexity that the others didn’t attain’ (Interview with David Goldblatt). Such commentators have tended to construct dichotomies between art and politics, with documentary and ‘struggle’ photography the site of considerable debate in this regard. And it’s a very strange thing .... Omar is a political activist of an almost extreme kind, and yet his photography is extraordinarily dispassionate. In its approach. He somehow never allowed his political certainty to intrude on his photographic vision, in my opinion. (Ibid.) Goldblatt’s notion of ‘dispassionateness’ implies that expressive power –‘complexity’–depends on a separation of the political and aesthetic spheres. But the issue is not as simple as ‘culture’ escaping ‘politics’, at a time when it was strongly argued that the arts should be in the service of the South African liberation struggle. Instead of marking Badsha out as exceptional, it is more helpful to break down the polarized analytical space around these debates, and allow for the constant operation of aesthetic judgment in an unfolding social and political setting. In a 2All interviews with Omar Badsha and other photographers and activists cited in this essay (see list in References) were conducted by the Project in Documentary Photography at the History Department of the University of the Western Cape (UWC), with the support of the National Research Foundation of South Africa. In addition, many of the interviews, correspondence and conversations with Omar Badsha took place in the context of the proposed republication of Badsha’s photographs under the title of ‘Narratives’. http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 27 Mar 2015 IP address: 196.11.235.237 POLITICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN SOUTH AFRICA 547 time of political mobilization, photography was an important medium in an aesthetico-political regime with its ‘system of divisions and boundaries that define, among other things, what is visible and audible’ (Rockhill 2006: 1). It is illuminating to shift attention away from the images in isolation, and to focus on the complicated roots, biographies and discourses of those who emerged as photographers within such conditions. This brings us to the matter of the production of the images, their connection to the material circumstances in which they

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